“Mama
Chang”. She was so full of mysterious lore and had so many rules of behaviour that the
children sometimes found her quite puzzling. For instance, if someone died, you not say he
was dead but “he has passed away”. You should not enter a room where someone had died
or a child had been born. If a grain of rice fell to the ground, you should pick it up, and the
best thing was to eat it. On no account must you walk under the bamboo pole on which
trousers or pants were hanging out to dry. She would not let the children get up to mischief.
If they pulled up a weed or turned over a stone, she would say they were naughty and
threaten to tell their mother. In the beginning, the children did not think much of her. Lu
Xun was especially angry with her when she inadvertently stepped on and killed his
favourite little mouse. However, one thing which unexpectedly made Lu Xun feel respect
for her was that she often told the children stories of the “Long Hairs” (the Taiping
Rebellion) another thing which inspired Lu Xun with a still greater respect for her was that
she was able to produce from nobody knew where an illustrated edition of the Book of
Hills and Seas(1), which Lu Xun had been longing for day and night.
Lu Xun had been longing for an illustrated copy of the Book of Hills and Seas for
sometime. The whole business started with a distant great-uncle named Yutian, who was
living in the same compound. A fat and kindly old man, he liked to grow flowers such as
chloranthus and jasmine. The old man was a lonely soul with no one to talk to, so he like
the children’s company and often even called them his “young friends”. He owned a big
collection of books, one of which was called The Mirror of Flowers(2) with many beautiful
illustrations of flowers and trees. The children found this book most attractive. But the old
man told them that the illustrated edition of the Book of Hills and Seas even more
attractive, with pictures of man-faced beasts, nine-headed snakes, three-footed birds,
winged men and headless monsters who used their teats as eyes… Unfortunately, he
happened to have mislaid it. Eager as they were to look at the book with such strange
pictures, the children did not like to press him to find it. None of the people the children
asked knew where to get it, and the children had no idea where they could buy it them-
selves. The main street was a long way from their home, and the New Year holiday was
the only time in the year when they were able to go there to look around, but during that
period the bookshops were closed. As long as the children were playing, it was not so bad,
but the moment they sat down they would think of the Book of Hills and Seas. Probably
because Lu Xun harped on the subject so much, even A Chang got wind of it and started
asking what this Book of Hills and Seas was. Lu Xun then told her about it.
About a fortnight or a month later, Mama Chang came back after some leave at home 文 檔 共 享 與 在 線 閱 讀
and the moment she saw Lu Xun, she handed him a package. “Here, son!” she said
cheerfully. “I’ve bought you that Book of Holy Seas with pictures.” What an unexpected
piece of news! To young Lu Xun it was even more thrilling than the New Year holiday or a
festival. He hastened to take the package and unwrap the paper. There were four small
volumes and, sure enough, the man-faced beast, the nine-headed snake… all of them were
there. Although the paper was yellow and the drawings very poor—so much so that even
the animals’ eyes were oblong, and both the engraving and printing were very crude,
nevertheless, it was Lu Xun’s most treasured book. Later, in a highly impassioned essay
Lu Xun paid tribute to this country woman of peasant origin and described his own deep
affection for her.
The book was indeed something extraordinary. Lu Xun received it from Mama
Chang’s hands along with her incomparably deep affection for him. It touched the young
L